A commission must report a plan 90 days after the official census data is received.

Who’s in Charge of Redistricting?

A
five-member, civilian Redistricting Board draws state legislative
districts (there is only one U.S. House district). Two members are
appointed to the commission by the governor, two by the legislature,
and one by the Chief Justice of Alaska’s highest court. All four
regions of the state must be represented on the committee and no state
employees or state officials may be commission members. The governor
has no veto power over the plan.

Districting Principles

Principle

Congressional

State Legis.

Compactness

+

Contiguity

+

Political sub.

+

Communities

+

District cores

Incumbents

VRA § 5

+

+

+
=
required
-- = prohibited a
= allowed

Public Access

Under
the State Constitution, as amended in 1998, the Board must publish a
preliminary plan within 30 days of receiving census figures and conduct
open meetings and public hearings. It has also set up a website with a schedule of hearings and draft plans .

Political Landscape

Alaska’s
interior is sparsely populated, despite comprising a large percentage
of the state geographically. The state legislature has gone from
leaning Democrat at the start of the decade to heavily Republican. The
change to a redistricting commission was designed in part to prevent
the Democratic governor from seeking to reverse those gains in
redistricting. The majority of Alaska voters are not affiliated with a
political party. Given that Alaska has only an at-large U.S. House
representative, congressional redistricting is not a factor.

Legal Issues

A
suit was filed shortly after the 1991 redistricting plan, challenging
the governor's state legislative district plan. The Alaska state
Supreme Court found that the plan's attempt to combine certain native
populations violated the state constitution's anti-gerrymandering
provisions. The court stipulated that the anti-gerrymandering
requirements under the state constitution may only be subordinated to
avoid violation of the Voting Rights Act. The Department of Justice is
weighing whether to pre-clear the anti-sampling law passed in 1999.

Legislation/Reform Efforts

There
was a significant change made in 1998, when a Redistricting Board was
established by House Joint Resolution 44. Prior to this change,
redistricting was conducted by the Governor. The Redistricting Board is
appointed by the Chief Justice of the Alaska Supreme Court. The
legislature also passed Senate Bill 99, which prohibited the use of
census sampling figures for redistricting purposes and outlawed
practices used to discount members of the Armed Forces in Alaska. (In
the 1960s, members of military services were not counted in the census.
In the 1970s they were counted as 11% of a human being, and in the 80's
as 35%. This new law, which passed in 1999 requires military personnel
to be counted fully).